Chapter 1
On the 17th of December, an airliner carrying seventeen students and their teacher took off from the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Their destination: Grindelwald, Switzerland. Working hard all year long, each student was able to raise the necessary funds to go on this one week trip to one of Switzerland's biggest and most luxurious ski resorts. Unfortunately, their flight never made it to Grindelwald. The headlines "Students and Teacher Go Missing During Class Trip" filled every television broadcast report for the next few days. On the 25th, however, a search and rescue team would find the wreckage from their plane scattered across the snow covered mountain side of the Alps. Only a handful of the people on board the plane would be found, each traumatized by the ordeal that took place. This is a story telling the events that occurred once the plane first took flight. This is the story of what happened to Flight 981. --- Thirteen hours into the long transatlantic flight, history teacher and class trip adviser, Alfons Hettig, sat back into his first class seat delighted at the fact that he would be arriving in his home country in about an hour. So far, he was enjoying his flight. Being the only person in first class had its perks. He'd been able to take a lengthy nap and was even able to finish reading his favorite novel, "A Shepherd's Tale". However, the peace and tranquility would not last long as he would then hear screaming coming from business class. Being the only authority figure on board, aside from the flight attendants and pilots, Mr. Hettig left his seat to see what all the commotion was. As he walked in, he noticed that Ash and Charley were engaged is some sort of slap fight while in their seats. The slapping eventually turned to pulling eachother's hair, which excited the boys in the cabin even more than they already were. Mr. Hettig quickly tried to separate the two, but they simply would not let go. Kim, who had been sitting alone for some reason, came to Mr. Hettig's aid. He tried to pull Ash away, but in doing so, accidentally touched her breast. Enraged, Ash let go of Charley's hair (some of which came off) and smacked Kim across the face. Upon seeing this, Mr. Hettig yelled at everyone to get back to their seats and behave. He then sat down Charley, Ash, and Kim and told them to explain to him what happened. Apparently, both of them realized that they both had a crush on the same boy in class and were fighting over him. After Charley and Ash were finished giving their sides of the story, Mr. Hettig told Ash to apologize to Kim for slapping him. Ash refused to do so, saying that he deserved what came to him. Annoyed, Mr. Hettig lectured all three of them, along with Eli and Ometepe who were sitting directly behind them, on the importance of keeping their hands to themselves. While this was happening, Gerda, Chris, Orange, and DB were having a friendly conversation, excited that they'd be landing in just less than an hour. Gerda, who was a transfer student from Estonia and was quite well-traveled, told them that Europe was such a beautiful continent and that she couldn't wait to them to see the luscious scenery that Switzerland had to offer. Upon overhearing what Gerda had to say, Crtha turned back from her seat and said that she had been looking forward for this trip all year. Wes, who was sitting right next to Crtha, chimed in that it better be worth every penny he paid, as he had to work overtime at the strip club where he sold his body to sleazy strangers. Creeped out, the six of them just continued with their normal conversation. Meanwhile, Emma had just finished doing her business in the plane's lavatory and was headed for her seat when she saw Luke, who was sitting next to Hickman and Henry, staring intensely at something. She then noticed that sitting just a few rows in front was Taylor, who was being chatted up by Hunter and Justin. Thinking nothing of it, Emma made her way to her seat, but just as soon as she sat down, the plane began to shake violently. This lasted for a few seconds and after it was over, the pilot came over the intercom, stating that it was just some turbulence. However, just as he said that, the plane began to shake again. This time, Mr. Hettig told everyone to sit down and to put on their seat belts. When Mr. Hettig sat down and fastened his seat belt, the plane began to shake even harder. Some of the students were beginning to get scared, but their teacher reassured them that this was a common occurrence. However, it was not. A loud explosion was heard coming from the back of the plane which caused many of the students to scream in fear. As the plane shook more and more, luggage was beginning to fall from the overhead containers. This caused the oxygen masks to drop, in which the passengers desperately tried to put on. The next thing everyone heard and would surely remember for the rest of their lives was the sound of the entire tail section of the plain being ripped apart. Everyone covered their head and ducked down as the plane began its abrupt descent into the ground. What was supposed to be a wonderful vacation quickly turned into something from a horror movie. Minutes later, Mr. Hettig found himself lying down in a pile of cold, white snow. His coat was ripped, one shoe was missing, and he had a throbbing sensation in his head. The moment he touched the back of his head and saw his fingers strained red with blood, he came to the horrifying realization that the plane had crashed somewhere in the Swiss Alps. However, the plane was no where in sight. Mr. Hettig looked in every direction, but all he saw were the snow covered trees the lined the vicinity of the area. He yelled at the top of his lungs for help and for his seventeen students, but there was no answer. After several more tries, Mr. Hettig began to weep, accepting that he was alone in this hopeless situation. However, a faint "Help!" was heard and the teacher quickly ran past some trees where he saw black smoke coming from a distance. To be continued...